By Trina Cubanski | Community Giving Associate
Dear friend,
On behalf of all our staff and patients, thank you for your generous giving to Partners In Health (PIH)! We are so grateful for your partnership in providing high-quality maternal health care to women in Sierra Leone.
Roughly 1 in 74 women in Sierra Leone face a lifetime risk of dying in childbirth, compared to approximately 1 in 4,000 in the United States and 1 in 60,000 in Norway. This means a woman in Sierra Leone has a 54x higher risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth than a woman in the US.
With your support, PIH, in partnership with the Ministry of Health, opened the Maternal Center of Excellence (MCOE) in Sierra Leone this year to drive the country's maternal mortality rate towards zero and prove that most maternal deaths can be prevented, even in marginalized communities. The MCOE expands the campus of Koidu Government Hospital, dramatically increasing the number of beds, services, and facilities available to mothers and babies.
In the first 24 hours of opening, the MCOE welcomed 27 patients, including Fanta Jimmy and 13 babies were born, including Fanta's baby girl. Suffering from pre-eclampsia, Fanta was taken in for an emergency C-section. After the birth, her daughter was taken immediately to the MCOE's NICU – the first NICU in Sierra Leone. The baby girl is stable and doing well, and Fanta was able to stay in the mother's dormitory until her daughter was ready to go home.
Fanta and her daughter's care required access to clinical equipment common in the United States, but unprecedented in Sierra Leone. The MCOE is equipped with the advanced technology needed to treat pregnant women and newborns, making an immediate and lifesaving difference upon opening its doors.
A product of investment in the community and partnership with the Ministry of Health, the MCOE is saving lives and honoring generations of Sierra Leoneans’ rights to health.Thank you for supporting this transformative work.
With gratitude,
Partners In Health
P.S. To learn more about your impact and other ways to make a difference, sign up for our newsletter atact.pih.org/sign-up!
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